Flight of the Javelin: The Complete Series: A Space Opera Box Set

by Rachel Aukes

“We don’t have that kind of equipment on board,” Finn said.

  “Is his daughter stable?” Throttle asked.

  “I never said she was my daughter,” Punch said.

  She nearly rolled her eyes. “She’s the spitting image of you, only cuter.”

  “The scanner said all vitals are in the normal ranges,” Finn replied.

  Throttle looked at Finn. “Okay. Then our priority is to figure out what to do about that ship out there.”

  Punch sneered. “We go after them. I have a lot of questions I want to ask them.”

  She turned to Punch. “That’s not your call. This is my ship, and my team makes the call.”

  He snarled at her. “Fine. Then drop me off at the nearest dock. I’ll track them down myself.”

  She held up a hand. “Simmer down, Punch. We’re not your enemy.” She sighed. “Sylvian and Rusty have been tracking that ship from the moment our scanners picked it up. We damaged one of its navigational engines pretty good, and it’s limping through the belt as we speak. We can catch up to it in no time if we want to.”

  Punch’s brows rose. “We want to.”

  She eyed him for a moment. “Did you give them what was on the data card?”

  He seemed taken aback, then gave a small nod.

  She rubbed her forehead. “That settles it. We have to stop them from using that data, assuming they haven’t already sent it on.” She motioned to the girl, who looked like she was sleeping. “Punch, you stay with your daughter.”

  “Macy,” he said.

  “What?”

  “Her name’s Macy.”

  “You stay with Macy,” Throttle said. “Finn and I are heading to the bridge to see about catching up with whoever it is who was trying to blow you up out there.”

  The pair left the father and daughter and headed to the bridge. When they arrived, they found Sylvian at her workstation, busily swiping and tapping at her panel.

  “They’re trying to lose us, but their gimp is really holding them back,” the software specialist said without looking up. She turned around then. “I don’t know why they ran rather than shot back. They have to know that we could catch up to them, so turning to fight makes more sense.”

  “I was thinking the same thing,” Throttle said as she settled in at her station. “Rusty, follow that ship, but keep us at a safe distance for now. I don’t want to encourage them to change their minds and shoot at us.”

  “Pursuing the other ship will mean we’ll have to enter the asteroid belt,” Rusty said.

  “I know that,” Throttle said.

  Movement appeared in the statistics displayed on Throttle’s screen before she noticed any of the asteroids before them grow larger. She tapped the intercom. “Attention. We’re entering the asteroid belt, so things could get jostled around. You might want to buckle in.”

  She looked through the front window and rolled her eyes. “You’re flying like my grandma, Rusty.”

  “I’m flying based on scans since there are no maps of the asteroid belt. Besides, there are many objects out here that could damage my hull at higher speeds,” the central computer replied.

  She swiped her hand over her panel to bring up the flight-control screen on the left of the panel, with the map of the belt and the blip of the other ship on the right. “I’m taking control. Finn, you take the guns.”

  She increased propulsion to maximum sub-speed. The Tumbleweed Trail was a less dense asteroid belt than others Throttle had flown through in the Trappist system. Rusty had been correct that there were more tiny bits of debris than average, but none would cause damage to a ship at sub-speeds, at least nothing beyond a cosmetic blemish or two. She grinned. “It’s been a long time since I’ve flown through an asteroid belt.”

  “We need to pick up more metal so Rusty can produce more rounds for the rail gun,” Finn said. “Then I could have some fun doing some plinking through this belt.”

  “Use the cannon,” Throttle offered.

  He brushed her off. “Those are overkill. No fun in that. Rail guns were made for plinking.” He chuckled. “I still can’t believe Eddy spent his free time making a rail gun for the Javelin just so he wouldn’t have to carry his own blaster.”

  “You’ve seen the way he shoots. That rail gun is a win for all of us,” Throttle said.

  “We’ve received an incoming message,” Sylvian said.

  “Who’s it from?” Throttle asked.

  “Chief. He said that Atlas reported the High Spirit suffered a catastrophic failure, and that Punch isn’t answering his calls via his Atlas chip.”

  Throttle chortled. “Of course he isn’t answering his calls. How’s he going to tell Chief about his ship getting destroyed without telling him about his act of treason?”

  “What should I tell Chief?” Sylvian asked.

  Throttle considered their options. “Tell him that Punch is alive and well on board the Javelin after we picked up his distress call.”

  A couple of moments later, Sylvian spoke. “I’ve sent the response.”

  Throttle’s Atlas chip flashed an incoming call through her personal heads-up display, or HUD, in her vision. She ignored the call.

  “Chief just tried to call me,” Finn said.

  “He tried to call me, too,” Throttle said.

  “He’s pinged the Javelin,” Sylvian said.

  “We’ll have to talk to him sometime,” Finn said.

  “He’s all yours, then,” Throttle said.

  Finn smirked at her and then nodded at Sylvian.

  She answered the call. “Hi, Chief. What can I do for you?”

  “If Punch is alive and well, then why isn’t he answering my calls?” Chief’s voice came through the bridge’s speakers.

  The trio looked at one another; then Finn spoke. “He’s in his bunk, resting, so he probably has his Atlas chip muted. He dealt with some stress back at the High Spirit.”

  “Tell me what happened, Finn.”

  “It was likely a pirate attack,” Finn reported smoothly.

  “Why was he out by the Tumbleweed Trail?”

  Finn shrugged. “You’ll have to ask him that yourself when he’s back up and around.”

  “I’ll do that. I also want to know why you and Sylvian—and I assume Throttle and Eddy—are out there as well.”

  Finn frowned. He glanced at the two women before answering, “I didn’t know we had to keep you posted on where we go while on personal leave.”

  “You don’t, but asteroid belts are not locations people choose to visit while on holiday. And I’m curious as to why both the High Spirit and the Javelin are out there.”

  “I’ll be happy to talk with you at length when we return from leave, but until then, I’d like to enjoy a little time off with my wife,” Finn said.

  Chief’s response came after a brief delay. “I look forward to our conversation. Enjoy your leave and stay out of trouble.”

  Sylvian disconnected the call. “Think he bought your story?”

  Finn chuckled. “Not a chance, especially if he checks our Atlas chips, but we have nearly eight days to come up with a better story.”

  “You bought us some breathing room. That’s all we need for now,” Throttle said before she returned her focus to the screens. “Whoa.”

  “What’s wrong?” Sylvian asked.

  “I just lost the other ship. Rusty, are you still tracking it?”

  “My sensors no longer detect the ship. It is likely using a large asteroid to conceal itself,” Rusty replied.

  “We’ll find the sucker. Show me its flight path before it disappeared,” Throttle said.

  A jagged red line appeared on her map. She used her finger to draw the line forward to follow the bogey, assuming it continued along its same trajectory. She used two fingers to draw a V outward from the ship’s last tracked position to give her an area of space to focus on. She couldn’t increase speed without increasing the risk of damage to a probable level. She weaved around rocks, trying to avo
id any large enough that could be seen by the naked eye. Before her, a massive asteroid loomed.

  “No wonder we lost the ship behind that behemoth,” she said.

  “Eddy needs to build a gun turret on this ship so I can have a visual three-sixty,” Finn said. “Relying only on scans to identify threats doesn’t do a bit of good in an asteroid belt.”

  “You should tell him that,” Sylvian said.

  “Maybe later. He’s in the middle of one of his special projects right now.”

  “Which one’s that?” Sylvian asked.

  “Something about storing the extra energy collected by Rusty’s solar arrays so that it doesn’t bleed off as it does now,” he replied.

  “Keep your heads in the game,” Throttle said. “We’re in prime territory for an ambush.”

  “My head was never out of the game,” Finn said.

  She slowed the Javelin as she brought it under the center of the large asteroid that resembled a rust-covered dumbbell. She weaved the ship to pan the area for any unnatural movement. No ship dropped out of a hidey-hole. No flashes of light from a photon cannon. The eerie silence made Throttle uncomfortable. The other ship was out there, watching and waiting…but waiting for what?

  Once she piloted the Javelin beyond the massive asteroid, she saw several larger asteroids beyond. Some were the size of moons. She blew out a breath. No wonder pirates came to the Trail to hide. The asteroids, all containing high metal content, provided perfect cover. She wondered how many companies had mined some of those asteroids without permits, or how many wealthy criminals had built getaway lairs within an asteroid.

  “I hope they didn’t come this way to hook up with some buddies, or else we’re in for a world of hurt,” Finn said.

  “My sensors aren’t picking up any other ships within this quarter sector; however, I’m detecting an anomaly beyond the iron asteroid ahead,” Rusty said.

  “What kind of anomaly?” Throttle asked.

  “Something larger than a ship, but its mass readings are less than the surrounding space. It’s likely that my sensors are being jumbled by the metals in the asteroids in this area. It’s uncommon to have so many larger asteroids clustered.”

  “Whatever’s up there, I’m ready for anything in front of us. I have the cannon aimed at our eleven o’clock high and the rail gun aimed at our one o’clock low,” Finn said.

  Throttle swallowed. “I guess there’s only one way to find out.” She guided the Javelin around the dark brown, egg-shaped asteroid. Minutes dragged by as she piloted the ship within a thousand feet of the rocky surface to help disguise the Javelin against the other ship’s sensors.

  As she nosed the ship over the crest of the asteroid, she looked in all directions, searching. “I don’t see anything, do you?”

  Finn answered first. “Nothing here. Just black as far as I can see.”

  “It’s odd that things open up so much after that cluster of asteroids. You’d think there’d at least be smaller rocks scattered about,” Sylvian said.

  Throttle frowned. “Wait a second. I don’t see anything. No rocks, but also no stars. Rusty, give me some analysis.”

  “The readings on my sensors have not changed. It is an anomaly with an unstable mass. If I had to guess, I would label it a primordial black hole.”

  “Oh shit,” Finn muttered.

  Sylvian shook her head. “It can’t be. We never could’ve gotten so close without disintegrating.”

  “This particular anomaly seems to have minimal gravity pull,” Rusty said.

  “Why isn’t it on the charts?” Sylvian asked.

  “The asteroid belt hasn’t been mapped,” Rusty answered.

  Sylvian pointed at the circle of inky black. “Still, this is something worth noting, don’t you think?”

  “I’m going to turn us around and give us more space until we figure out exactly what that thing is,” Throttle said. She slowed the ship and began to turn. She felt vibrations in her seat and under her hands.

  She added power and steepened the turn. The vibrations shook the entire ship as the Javelin fought against the black hole’s gravity.

  “I thought you said it had minimal gravity pull, Rusty,” Throttle said, her voice growing louder.

  “It does, for a black hole. However, my sensors can’t correctly read black matter, especially dense black matter,” Rusty said.

  “I need all power routed to the engine,” Throttle said.

  The bridge lights darkened, and Throttle felt the ship’s gravity disappear. Vibrations rattled her teeth and sloshed around the contents of her stomach. She ignored her surroundings and focused on putting distance between the ship and the black hole. She tried different directions, different power settings, even alternating between short and long bursts of power, but nothing worked.

  The black hole’s maw grew ominously massive as it drew in the Javelin.

  Chapter Nine

  Everything shook. Throttle gripped her seat to keep from tumbling out. A panel fell off the wall. The bridge went dark and silent while the ship continued to shudder. Then everything abruptly stopped.

  “Are you okay, Syl?” Finn asked.

  “Yeah, I think so,” Sylvian replied.

  “How about you, Throttle?” Finn asked.

  “I’m fine. Better than what I can say for the ship. Rusty, are you up?” Throttle asked.

  There was no response.

  Throttle tapped her screen, but it was as dead as all the systems around her. She still couldn’t see a thing—not even her hand in front of her face.

  A light beam shone, and Throttle turned toward it to see Finn holding a small flashlight. He unbuckled his seatbelt and floated from his workstation. “I think Eddy has a stockpile of emergency lights in the back. I’ll see about getting some for us.”

  The lights flickered back on. The trio looked around to see the bridge mostly in one piece. Several panels had broken free from the walls, floor, and ceiling and now floated in the air.

  Finn clicked off his flashlight and pocketed it. “I’ll just go check on the others, then.”

  “Be careful,” Sylvian said.

  Throttle looked at the software specialist. “Now, let’s see about getting the systems back.”

  Sylvian tapped at her screen. “The lights came back on, so we have power. That’s a good thing, but everything’s dead up here. I don’t know why we have lights and nothing else.”

  Throttle frowned. “Where’s the manual reboot on this ship?”

  The other woman looked around. “I don’t know. I’ve never seen one on the Javelin. On other ships, there’s always one at the captain’s station on the bridge.”

  The pair searched their workstations for a reset switch. Finding none, they released their belts and floated around the bridge, searching the walls and floors for a switch. Throttle eyed the ceiling. An idea struck her, and she pushed off to the center of the bridge. She used the crevices between the tiles as fingerholds. She twisted open the vented panel where Rusty’s bridge speaker was located. Once it was off, she peered inside at Rusty’s central computer system.

  Fastened into the ceiling was a metal orb three times the size of the bots. It was nearly identical in look and shape to the bots, and Throttle wondered if Rusty had modeled his bots after himself. The orb wasn’t perfectly smooth. It had various lights and switches on it—though half were missing—along with enough dents and holes that it looked like it’d been used as a kickball at one time.

  “Oh wow, I did not expect Rusty to look like that,” Sylvian said, coming up by Throttle’s side.

  “Eddy and I took a peek at Rusty before. He’s pretty much a sealed system, so there wasn’t much we could do with him.” Throttle scrutinized the central computer system and became focused on a circle-shaped opening on top. She reached into the small hole and felt wires and boards. When her fingers brushed a switch, she flipped it up. Nothing happened, and she flipped it back down.

  Lights blinked on the orb.
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br />   Throttle and Sylvian grinned at each other. Then the ship’s electromagnetic gravity field powered up, and they tumbled to the floor.

  They landed in a heap on top of each other. “Ow,” Throttle said, rubbing her funny bone.

  “Your blades are jabbing me,” Sylvian said through gritted teeth.

  “Oh. Sorry.” Throttle rolled off her friend, stood, and helped Sylvian to her feet. “Are you injured?”

  Sylvian winced. “I’m okay, I think.”

  Rusty spoke. “I believe I suffered a blackout. My timestamp doesn’t align with the ship clock.”

  “Yeah, Rusty. The black hole did a number on you. My guess is that the electromagnetic energy is screwed up in here,” Throttle said as she helped Sylvian limp to her station, and Throttle returned to her seat. The screens came to life when she ran her hand over them. She sighed. “It looks like everything’s coming back online. Rusty, run full diagnostics as soon as possible.”

  “I will begin scans once all environmental systems are running.”

  She heard movement behind her and turned to see Finn and Eddy walk in. Eddy was sporting a white bandage wrap around his forehead. “You’re hurt,” she said.

  “Of course I’m hurt. I’m lucky to be alive,” Eddy said. “How about the next time you decide to enter a black hole, you let me know, okay? Or, better yet, don’t enter one again.”

  “It wasn’t by choice,” Throttle said. “It wanted us, so it took us. It shook us up pretty good and must’ve hit us with an EMP of some kind to knock everything offline. Evidently, the reinforced hull that works great against radiation doesn’t do much against concentrated EMPs.”

  Eddy slumped into the workstation that Punch usually occupied. “I know. I had to restart the entire power system manually. I can turn the lights on from the main board, but I couldn’t find access to all the other systems.”

  Throttle nodded toward the orb secured within the ceiling. “I think Rusty’s the main board for those.”

  Eddy cocked his head, pushed to his feet, and walked to where he stood directly below Rusty. He scrutinized the orb before turning back to Throttle. “You left fingerprints.”

  “Sorry?” Throttle said weakly and turned to look at Finn. “How’s Punch and Macy doing?”